Overclocking XFX HD7950 DD ( vrm temps can't be monitored )

[Sempron Guy]

I got this particular card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150616

So far I got it to 1000/1370 at 1.088v. Temps hovers around 75c while playing Far Cry 3 with fan set at 75%. I do use frame limiter so fps stays below 60. Without the limiter, fps goes crazy at times above 60 and load temps increases to around 78c.

Recently I've been trying to overclock it further and I couldn't get it to run stable at 1050mhz core and I'm already at 1.110v. As for the temps I could not get a proper reading cause it freezes around 3mins after going into game. Temps around 74ish. I've been hesitant to push it further cause I got no way of telling what temps the vrms are running. GPU-Z cannot detect it nor HWInfo. Is there other way of knowing the vrm temps other than a laser gun? Like any other monitoring software I didn't know of? If the VRM goes past it's limit, does it have some sort of protection or something? Cause last time I played Anno 2070 and fps rockets to around 90fps, temps goes around 85c and the core clock throttles to 500mz. That was around 6 mos. ago on a different environment w/c is hotter then where I am right now. The card was overclocked at 1050mhz @ 1,09v as far as I remember. I was assuming that's vrm protection kicking in?

This is the first card I've owned where I'm pretty much limited by cooling. And the fan is noisy at 75%, deafening at 100%. I've been meaning to try the Red Mod but I'm still in the process of looking for a copper shim. The Accelero Xtreme 7970 is also a very efficient alternative but I got no luck so far looking for it here in our local stores. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions

 

[d1nky]

tahiti chips are believed to be temp sensitive, people say that keeping these at around 50*c yields best overclocks.

try keep the vrms cool as well, it helps my overclocks greatly.

and is the 1.110v before or after vdroop? and it appears that your vrms havent got a temp sensor.

78*c to me is hot but others is about average, but i wouldnt run a card gaming for hours at around 80*c because guaranteed the vrms are hotter.

if you cant push the mem any further it probably means you have elpida chips which max at about 1400 on air or 1500 with more volts and cooling.

it may be vrm or core throttling for protection, or if the powerlimit is at 0% then its hitting its TDP limit and throttling.

if it were me id focus on dropping temps, i know some people undervolt and overclock to keep temps down

 

[Sempron Guy]

I couldn't do pretty much on the XFX's stock cooling other than replacing the TIM. The vrm's are cooled by thermal pads btws attached to a big block of heatsink which constitutes to most the cooler. What's the proper software to report actual vdroop? my reference is gpu-z monitoring and it reports 1.110 is that reliable enough? I've noticed my mems doesn't do much. I mean at 1.088v anything above 1370 and it locks up. Tahiti chips doesn't show much improvement in terms of gaming anyway or at least as far as my reading goes. I have set my power limit to 20%. For reference at stock with fan on auto my load temps on far cry 3 is around 69-71c.

 

[RCoon]

I couldn't do pretty much on the XFX's stock cooling other than replacing the TIM. The vrm's are cooled by thermal pads btws attached to a big block of heatsink which constitutes to most the cooler. What's the proper software to report actual vdroop? my reference is gpu-z monitoring and it reports 1.110 is that reliable enough? I've noticed my mems doesn't do much. I mean at 1.088v anything above 1370 and it locks up. Tahiti chips doesn't show much improvement in terms of gaming anyway or at least as far as my reading goes. I have set my power limit to 20%. For reference at stock with fan on auto my load temps on far cry 3 is around 69-71c.

HWInfo is what I use to monitor temps, and I use Sapphire Trixx for overclocking AMD GPU's. I have had 2 x 7950 XFX DD editions, both ran at 1Ghz core on stock volts, I didnt mess with memory much. The XFX DD are pretty bad coolers, I suffered with them for a year and a bit before moving away from crossfire.
I managed to set up a custom fan profile in Trixx so they never got above 70 degrees, but the fans were really noisy on those cards. You'll either have to suffer temps nearing 80 degrees, or loud fans. It's a shame, the cards look really nice. Make sure your power limit is about 110% so you dont get throttled.

 

[d1nky]

theres VIN mod for afterburner which shows realtime voltage if thats what you use?

the guys edited the post that it used to be on, ill try find it. but gpuz should show realtime voltage after vdroop...

i think youre about at the thermal limits and limits of overclocking tbh, could bump the voltage up a notch and see how far you get but may be little point apart from benchmarking.

 

[Sempron Guy]

HWInfo is what I use to monitor temps, and I use Sapphire Trixx for overclocking AMD GPU's. I have had 2 x 7950 XFX DD editions, both ran at 1Ghz core on stock volts, I didnt mess with memory much. The XFX DD are pretty bad coolers, I suffered with them for a year and a bit before moving away from crossfire.
I managed to set up a custom fan profile in Trixx so they never got above 70 degrees, but the fans were really noisy on those cards. You'll either have to suffer temps nearing 80 degrees, or loud fans. It's a shame, the cards look really nice. Make sure your power limit is about 110% so you dont get throttled.

Are your cards the one with a 6pin and an 8pin? Can you see your VRM temps? I wish I could've gone for the Sapphire Dual X instead. I completely disregarded user opinion during my research and relied on tech reviews. And the card does look pretty. I admit I got lured by it

theres VIN mod for afterburner which shows realtime voltage if thats what you use?

the guys edited the post that it used to be on, ill try find it. but gpuz should show realtime voltage after vdroop...

i think youre about at the thermal limits and limits of overclocking tbh, could bump the voltage up a notch and see how far you get but may be little point apart from benchmarking.

I use Sapphire Trixx. For some reason I can't change voltage on afterburner. Here's my log on gpu-z btw. I guess that looks clean enough as far as voltage is concerned?

 

[RCoon]

Are your cards the one with a 6pin and an 8pin? Can you see your VRM temps? I wish I could've gone for the Sapphire Dual X instead. I completely disregarded user opinion during my research and relied on tech reviews. And the card does look pretty. I admit I got lured by it

7950 with 7970 PCB 6pin+8pin, yes. Great at overclocking, terrible at handling the temperatures in a quiet fashion. Admittedly they were the cheapest 7950 on the market at the time so I bought two. The guy I sold them to replaced the coolers immediately.

 

[d1nky]

^^^ thats not real time voltage. thats VID or ''target voltage''

vdroop and realtime voltage is a lot more messy and varies according to load.

ill dig up some infos on how to find it other than AB

edit: All the old links have changed damn why do people need to alter articles.....

I found the file that has to be altered but dont know what to put in it lol

oh well i use trix and hwinfo64 and know that my vdroop is about 50mv

also found an old pic showing vdroop and realtime volt monitoring for AB, from back in the day http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9994/vcore.png

 

[Durvelle27]

I would have sprung for a card with a better cooler bud. The XFX Double D is terrible. My HD 7870 has one and OC'd it gets up to 82c

 

[Sempron Guy]

^^^ thats not real time voltage. thats VID or ''target voltage''

vdroop and realtime voltage is a lot more messy and varies according to load.

ill dig up some infos on how to find it other than AB

edit: All the old links have changed damn why do people need to alter articles.....

I found the file that has to be altered but dont know what to put in it lol

oh well i use trix and hwinfo64 and know that my vdroop is about 50mv

also found an old pic showing vdroop and realtime volt monitoring for AB, from back in the day http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9994/vcore.png

I'm using afterburner for OSD. There seem to be an option to unlock voltage monitoring but it's not working. I'll try and go over HWInfo again and that modified AB you're talking about.

I would have sprung for a card with a better cooler bud. The XFX Double D is terrible. My HD 7870 has one and OC'd it gets up to 82c

Yup, I'm looking into that option right now. Though those gpu coolers are hard to come by in my country. If it was available on hand I would've change the cooler the first time I laid my hands on the card.

 

[d1nky]

google search VEN mod, theres a VEN file in the profiles folder that requires some extra text to watch realtime voltage for AB

i knew i should of kept the text somewhere lol

 

[Sempron Guy]

^no luck on the VEN mod. I also tried HWInfo, which value are you looking at? It seems it's reporting the same voltage as gpu-z.

 

[d1nky]

if youre using afterburner to overclock you select the target voltage, mostly all monitoring programs display this target voltage.

gpuz and hwinfo may of updated to show realtime volts tbh i havent looked in a while.

i knew i had to alter a few .ini files etc to get mine to show realtime volts and vdroop.

well if hwinfo/gpuz show a voltage that isnt clean and is lower than 'target set' then its probably actual voltage.


i was overclocking/monitoring and testing software a couple months ago (when it was cold lol)

 

[Sempron Guy]

I'm using sapphire trixx for overclocking, I'm only using afterburner and riva for monitoring. Afterburner even on their latest beta does not allow me to change nor monitor the voltage. Here what I'm getting with HWInfo

I'm assuming the average value is the realtime value?

 

[buildzoid]

The Xfx 79xx series have non reference VRMs that are worse than a reference card's so you might be at the limit for your card. And yes Tahiti is super sensitive to temps I know from ocing my HD7970 Vapor-x.

 

[Sempron Guy]

So I just found out that the card is voltage locked. With Sapphire Trixx I could only set the voltage up to 1130mv. I'm ditching the red mod cause I'm unstable at 1100mv at 1050mhz and 30mv will not do much. For someone like me who overclocks, this is the worst card I've ever purchased in my life. It's hot at stock cooling, fan is loud above 50% and it's voltage locked. I couldn't imagine anything worst than that


Any hopes with bios flashing on this ugly piece of garbage?

 

[d1nky]

flashing a bios wont unlock it im afraid, you may get lucky tho. but if you havent got a bios swicth you'll more than likely brick it.

if i were you and the cards in decent condition id try part exchange it for a 7970 - reason being ''upgrade''

you'll probably find a voltage unlocked one and better cooling.

i wouldnt waste your time with trying to make it better, because it would be wasted lol


and that clock/volts is like this 2nd DCII i got, it cant overclock for crap about the same as yours but voltage unlocked. i definitely got lucky with my one that can do about 1100+ on stock volts. and upto 1250/1800 for benching.

 

[Sempron Guy]

^good luck to me on trading the card. It's barely 6mos. old and I already broke the warranty. I replaced the TIM hoping it would lower the temps. I'm aware about the warranty conditions in north america where you can take out the sticker and replace the TIM without breaking the warranty. Wrote a "long, detailed" email to XFX about the warranty conditions here in Asia and all I got was a one line reply saying it will void the card if I rip the sticker and replace the TIM. So I did it anyway knowing I'll break it anyway once I do the red mod. Should have checked the card first that it's limited. Oh well what a waste. Shame cause the card's asic is at 89%.

 

[Vario]

^good luck to me on trading the card. It's barely 6mos. old and I already broke the warranty. I replaced the TIM hoping it would lower the temps. I'm aware about the warranty conditions in north america where you can take out the sticker and replace the TIM without breaking the warranty. Wrote a "long, detailed" email to XFX about the warranty conditions here in Asia and all I got was a one line reply saying it will void the card if I rip the sticker and replace the TIM. So I did it anyway knowing I'll break it anyway once I do the red mod. Should have checked the card first that it's limited. Oh well what a waste. Shame cause the card's asic is at 89%.

All I did was tell them you are going to do it and they will say "okay" and add it to your file so your warranty is intact. I replaced my TIM and got a -10C core reduction!!!

I think I sent them a technical request through the online form. Pretend you haven't done it yet.

 

[d1nky]

my asus the one that clocks good is 59% asic and the one that doesnt is 55% - i pay zero attention to asic value.


damn, and this red mod did it help overclocking?

when i buy my second card im more than ready to keep returning/part exing it until i get a good clocker. then i'll think about water.

 

[Vario]

The Xfx 79xx series have non reference VRMs that are worse than a reference card's so you might be at the limit for your card. And yes Tahiti is super sensitive to temps I know from ocing my HD7970 Vapor-x.

My XFX 7850 Pitcairn overclocks like a champ with only a 78% ASIC, it was at 1100mhz core with an UNDERVOLT !!! The replacement of TIM helped a ton.

 

[_larry]

Yeah I'm going to have to say you may want to upgrade your cooling. I have one of the coolest running 7950s on the market (windforce 3), but once it hits a certain temp range(75-80c), it starts to become unstable. It just clonked out at 1100/1500 @ 1.25v so I have it sitting at 1075/1500 now. Once you start breaching those barriers or running it at high voltages, the temps go up FAST. Using furmark it will get around 78c. I'm REALLY thinking about water cooling this thing so I can really push it and help it last.

 

[Sempron Guy]

All I did was tell them you are going to do it and they will say "okay" and add it to your file so your warranty is intact. I replaced my TIM and got a -10C core reduction!!!

I think I sent them a technical request through the online form. Pretend you haven't done it yet.

Well despite the cold reply I did replace the TIM and I got zero difference on the temps from stock.

my asus the one that clocks good is 59% asic and the one that doesnt is 55% - i pay zero attention to asic value.


damn, and this red mod did it help overclocking?

when i buy my second card im more than ready to keep returning/part exing it until i get a good clocker. then i'll think about water.

Yeah I'm going to have to say you may want to upgrade your cooling. I have one of the coolest running 7950s on the market (windforce 3), but once it hits a certain temp range(75-80c), it starts to become unstable. It just clonked out at 1100/1500 @ 1.25v so I have it sitting at 1075/1500 now. Once you start breaching those barriers or running it at high voltages, the temps go up FAST. Using furmark it will get around 78c. I'm REALLY thinking about water cooling this thing so I can really push it and help it last.

I was about to do the red mod, already ordered a shim in fact but now with limited voltage I don't see the significance of the red mod now. The highest I could get now at 1.130v is 1025 on the core. You think I could still push the clocks stable with cooler temps? My temps while playing Far Cry 3 is around 73c at 75% fan.

 

[d1nky]

oh yea its all temp related, up to you man. could be a last chance all or nothing kind of thing. most people try stay below 60*c, some say best results are below 45-50*c

thats a lot of vcore for that clock tho, what is stock volts?

looks similar to this second card i had 1150v trying for 1100mhz and would crash on that lol.

also take a look at the mem chips, if theyre elpida keep them below 1450mhz


and make sure mem/vrms are suitably cooled.

 

[Sempron Guy]

oh yea its all temp related, up to you man. could be a last chance all or nothing kind of thing. most people try stay below 60*c, some say best results are below 45-50*c

thats a lot of vcore for that clock tho, what is stock volts?

looks similar to this second card i had 1150v trying for 1100mhz and would crash on that lol.

also take a look at the mem chips, if theyre elpida keep them below 1450mhz


and make sure mem/vrms are suitably cooled.

stock vcore is at 1.03. And this is the non-boost edition so it's clocked at 800mhz stock. Haven't given the mems a look when I dismantled the cooler. Will update this thread if I'd be convinced to do the red mod. Hopefully, I could at least get it to 1100 stable.